Game apparatus



14935- J. w. ORCUTT ET AL 2,012,518

7 GAME APPARATUS Filed Dec. 5, 1954 fisepfz W Grout! Harry A. .Szeai'ns Thomas L. h all INVENTORS.

THE/R ATTORNEY5.

Patented Aug. 27, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT orgies GAME APPARATUS Joseph W. Orcutt, Harry A. Stearns, and Thomas L. Wall, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application December 5, 1934, Serial No. 756,012

1 Claim. (Cl. 273-121) ings; and means in the formof a bank or group of resilient rebound flags or spring members arrangedat various preselected points upon said playing surface in thepath of spent balls gravitating thereover sothat'the spent balls may engage said rebound flagsand be repropelled by the latter toward the upper end thereof so that they may again gravitate thereover and enter into said ball exit or scoring openings.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novel combination and arrangement of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention will best be understood by reference to the accompanying drawing, showing the preferred form of construction and in which:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a game apparatus embodying a preferred form and arrangement of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of the game apparatus shown in Fig. 1 illustrating a preferred form of the new rebound flags or springs;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 in Fig. 1 illustrating a preferred form of the new rebound flags or springs.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of a preferred form of thenew rebound or repropelling springs, taken on line 4-4 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on line 5-5 in Fig. 4; and

Fig. 6 is a top plan view on line 6-45 in Fig. 4.

The present invention is associated with a game apparatus of the so-called pin and marble game, shown in the drawing, and generally indicated therein at Ill; said apparatus comprising a cabinet ll including an inclined playing board I2 having ball exit or scoring openings l3 formed therein.

A propelling device in the form of a plunger I4 is arranged in the cabinet H and balls are propelled by the same, one at a time, up the ramp l5,

onto the upper area of the inclined playing surface 12 so that they may gravitate thereoverand enter into the ball exit or scoring openings I3.

Various devices have heretofore been designed,

in conjunction with pin and marble games, for

repropelling or reprojecting spent balls upwardly over the inclined playing surface toward the upper end thereof so that they may again gravitate over the inclined playing surface and enter into the ball exit or scoring openings. Among such devices which have heretofore been proposed are electrically operated devices arranged on the playing surface adjacent the lower end thereof and actuated by a playedball passing through an exit opening in the playing surface, 1

or otherwise, into engagement with a circuitclosing device so as to energize an electromagnetic circuit and thereby actuate the said reprojecting device so as to repropel or reproject a ball up onto the upper portion of the inclined playing surface so that it may again gravitate over the playing surface l2 and enter into the ball exit or scoring openings l3.

The present invention provides, at various strategic points on the inclined playing surface I2, ball-reprojecting devices, generally indicated at l6.

Each of the reprojectingdevices l6 comprises a resilient flat spring ll, these springs ll extending in a plane substantially parallel to the plane of the inclined playing board l2. Each of these rebound or reprojecting springs H has one end portion relatively free and has its other end portion attached, as at 18, to an upright post l9, the posts [9 being arranged upon the inclined playing board 12 and supporting the reprojecting springs ll above the playing surface of the inclined playing board [2.

Operation Balls are propelled or projected, one at a time, onto the upper portion of the inclined playing board 12, by means of the propelling device [4, and gravitate thereover so that they may enter into the ball exit or scoring openings l3. However, the balls 20 which engage the reprojecting springs ll, as they roll down the inclined playing surface IE, will bend the springs ll from their normal position A (Fig. 6) into position B, thus tensioning or energizing the springs whereupon the springs thus energized or tensioned by the impact of the balls 20 will rebound into position C (Fig. 6) and in so doing will reproject the balls 20 upwardly over the inclined playing surface l2 toward the upper end thereof so that the thus reprojected balls may again gravitate over the playing surface l2 and possibly enter into the ball exit or scoring openings l3; Whereupon the springs I! then return, by their own innate resiliency, back into their initial positions (position A, Fig. 6).

In the foregoing manner, played balls are reprojected over the inclined playing surface of the game apparatus without the use of the relatively expensive and complicated electro-magnetic or other reprojecting devices heretofore used in the art.

Moreover, the rebound springs or flags Iii-I'll embodied in the present invention add a large measure of so-called player appeal and suspense to the game apparatus with which they are used and they possess these elements in a greater degree than the prior art games which employ electromagnetic devices for reprojecting the spent balls upwardly over the inclined playing surface because of the fact that the action of these electromagnetic devices being very rapid, causes the balls to be reprojected up the inclined playing surface so rapidly that the movement of thethus reprojected balls possesses little, if any, of the element of suspense to the player, likewise, the action-of the reboundsprings Iii-l7 being relatively slow causes the balls reprojected the eby to travel up the inclined playing surface [2 relatively slow so that the desirable elementof suspense to the player is added to a game apparatus embodying the present invention.

While :we have illustrated and described the preferred form of construction for carrying our invention into effect, this is capable of variation and modification, without departing from the spirit of the invention. We, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth, but desire to avail ourselves of such variations and modifications as come Within the scope of the appended claim.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

In a game apparatus a cabinet including an inclined playing board having ball exit openings formed therein; means for propelling balls one at a time onto the upper portion of said inclined playing board so that they may gravitate thereover and enter into said openings; and means arranged upon said inclined playing board for reprojecting played or spent balls over said inclined playing board toward the upper end thereof so that the thus reprojected balls may again gravitate over said inclined playing board and enter into said exit openings; said reprojecting means including a plurality of upright posts or supporting members arranged at preselected points upon said inclined playing board and projecting vertically upwardly therefrom; each of said-posts having a notched portion formed therein providing a relatively fiat face; and an innately resilient flat .inetal flag or strip attached to each of said posts or supporting members; each of said flags or strips having aportion disposed in the said notched portion of the corresponding one of said posts against the said relatively flat face formed thereby and including a portion projecting substantially horizontally over said inclined playing board above the latter so as to be engaged by balls gravitating thereover; and .a

fastening member extending through the said first-named portion of each of said flat strips and the notched portionof the corresponding post.

JOSEPH w. ORCUTT. HARRY A. vs'r'rmmzrs. T. L. WALL. 

